Umbrella Obsession

For some strange reason, I love images of umbrellas!  In real life, I don't like using them, and believe me, here in Northern Ireland, we need them very, very often!  This is today's sketch over at SCS, tweaked a little by using an oval.  The image is from Sugar Nellie and this little cutie, named Ella, is colored with copics and popped up on a Spellbinders oval, sponged while still in the die.  The dp is from Echo Park.
My printer has been broken so I've been unable to do any custom sentiments such as Bible verses recently. I've just got a new printer and it's now up and running so I can get back into a more creative mode!

Clean and Simple Mums

This was created for a couple of challenges at SCS, the Queen for the Day challenge honoring the very sweet Brenda (Benzi) and the Free for All challenge to use orange!  The layout is based on a CAS card that Brenda created.  We have a local craft and stitchery show here in Belfast in April and while there I stumbled across a bin of Stampendous sets going for a song, where I found these mums!  Here I've used the border image and the two smaller flower images, coloring them with copics, popping them up, and adding black brads for centers.  I added a border with a black fine liner and ruler.  I thought the dots in the border might pick up on the dots in the image.  The flowing style of the sentiment seemed to pick up on the swirly flower stems too!

Thinking of You My Friend

This is the CAS sketch at SCS today and my card was inspired the colors of a card by yesterday's Featured Stamper, Sue (coffeestamper).  The lower third is embossed with a Sizzix folder and the crysanthamums and sentiment are by Stampendous.  The twine is from The Twinery.  I added a border with a black finer liner and ruler and some buttons for flower centers.  These flowers have a whole realm of possibities and I can't wait to try other colors and sketches, and maybe pop them up!

Hairy Potter

I created this one for the Ways to Use It challenge at SCS yesterday to use people on your card - this Emerson girl American Art image is great if you don't have much time for coloring!  I'd look a little like this with out the help of my hair straighteners! The dp's are My Minds Eye and October Afternoon, and the scallops are cut with MFT's large scallop Die-namic. 

Lots of people have asked me where I got this thicker Bakers twine, so here's the link to Purple Greetings Cards, which is here in the U.K.:

Purple Greetings Cards

It only comes in red, turqouise blue, and an aqua green, but it's beautifully thick and has a sort of off white hue rather than being stark white, which I love for some cards!  It's also quite reasonable in price!

This one's based on an inspiration photo of some cute baby bibs for the CAS (clean and simple) challenge at SCS on Monday!  The bright colors really appealed to me and sent me delving into my dp scraps so that I could paper piece the little onesies (Hero Arts stamp)!  The technique challenge on the same day was to use a straight edge border punch and cut along the undecorated edge just enough so that it could be shaped around the back edge of a circle - it worked easier than I thought it would, thanks to double sided tape!!  I used an SU punch for this.  To finish I colored the little hearts with copics and added twine and an oval tag.

Chair-ishing Friendship

I realized that one of my closest friends doesn't get enough cards from me telling her how much I appreciate her - without having any family here in Northern Ireland, I really do cherish my friends and don't know what I'd do without them!  Guess where this one's headed!

I originally intended the top panel to be shorter but it ended up being this size so the chairs would fit.  It reminded me of an experience in real life - shortly after my husband and I got married we seriously misjudged or mismeasured the size of our first furniture purchase of a couch and two chairs - when they got delivered we sat down on our new couch and found we could literally prop our feet up on the coal fire "across" the room in our first tiny home here in Belfast!

I stamped the chair images several times so I could pop up the cushions and sponged around the edges with Ranger Distress Antique Linen - helps give it that well used look, which my furniture sure has!! 
I drew a border around the top panel with a fine line marker and ruler, then masked around it with post-it-notes, sponging inside with the same ink.
This was made using the sketch for Wednesday's challenge at SCS - Roxie keeps us supplied with endless sketches week after week which I really appreciate as it's the hardest part of coming up with a card for me!

The stamps are from Papertrey Ink and the dp's are October Afternoon.  The twine is from The Twinery.

I'm thinking of you...

This was created using the SCS color challenge colors on Tuesday - someone I know, but not terribly well, has been diagnosed with an auto immune disease and they've been on my mind.  I try to keep the right postage stamps on hand to make it as easy as possible to send cards like this - it's far too easy for me to think about people and then at the end of the week realize I never got that card off to them! 

Someone sent me a personal message on SCS asking how I got the sponging so close to the image - I masked the roses with post-it-notes but because the stem and leaf color is yellowy green it didn't matter if a little ink got on those areas - when I finished sponging with Ranger Distress Scattered Straw (while still in the Spellbinders Nestabilities Oval die so you get that nice white edge) there were some tiny white areas at the edge of a rose or two due to imperfect masking.  I used Copic Y21 to just touch up those tiny areas as it's a really close match to Scattered Straw, which is a close match to SU's So Saffron!!

A Big Hug

I made this one for the Featured Stamper challenge at SCS today - it's inspired by a card from the lovely gallery of Becky (bspinks).  I love this sentiment because we all know there are times when words just aren't enough, or seem too trite or trivial for what a friend or loved one is going through.  I hope this would be like receiving a hug in an envelope!  The dp's are October Afternoon and I used Spellbinders Nesties Squares, Lacy Squares, and Butterflies Two.  The clouds were made sponging around a cloud cut with the Papertrey Ink cloud die with SU's Cool Caribbean.

Easter Blessings

This is the sketch at SCS today.  I used a Sweet and Sassy digi called Benjamin Bunny and added some Easter eggs cut from dp with the smallest of Spellbinder Nestabilitites ovals, then sponged the edges with various matching inks.  I popped them up in layers to give Benjamin a lapful of eggs!  The sentiment is computer generated, cut with a Nestie oval and sponged while in the die with SU's Pretty in Pink.

The dp's are a mix of Memory Box and My Minds Eye.  I have to say it was fun working with such bright and pretty colors and papers, especially since today was a warm and sunny day here in Belfast - beautiful spring weather!

Are You Staff or Family?

I made this for a color challenge over at SCS - the dp (October Afternoon) didn't have any red which was included in the challenge, so I colored the orange and yellow flower centers red with a copic to match the color scheme.  The cat image is made by Elzybells (no longer in production) and it's colored with copics.  The pillow and scallops (cut with an MFT small scallop Die-namic) are dp by Memory Box.  I cut the banner sentiment with a ruler and craft knife. and added twine.  The ovals are Spellbinders Nestabilities and I sponged the top oval while still in the die with SU's Cool Caribbean.  Lydia at SCS put this on their Facebook page, evidently there are loads of cat owners who can really identify with this sentiment!!  At the moment I'm "family" as a dog owner, but I've been "staff" in the past as we had a number of cats while I was growing up!

Over the Moon

Today at SCS there was a color challenge, to use soft aqua and yellow - I thought of a baby card and used a sketch by Irene (Dandi93) who was the featured stamper on Sunday.  I paper pieced the stamped image with DCWV dp and computer generated the sentiment.  I cut some stars out of a sheet of paper with Spellbinders Nestabilities and used it as a stencil with some SU Barely Banana ink.  Finished off by adding a little star button (there's actually a little heart image under there!) and a border with a black fine line marker.  I use a ruler and my eye to do this and usually (90% of the time anyway!) it comes out fairly even!

I don't remember the saying "I'm over the moon for you" when I lived in the U.S. all those years ago, but it's it's a common Northern Irish saying and the first thing that comes to mind when I see this cute Elzybells image.  These U.K. made stamps are no longer being produced so I'm glad to have a small collection of them!

Spring Birdhouse

The challenge at SCS on Friday was to make a card about any type of home.  I used an October Afternoon stamp that had a chain to "hang" this Digidesign birdhouse image, which is colored with copics.  The flowers are made with a Marianne die and the leaves with an EK Success punch.  The dp is from My Minds Eye and the twine from The Twinery.